England have (as per the norm it seems) several injuries and are missing some of the big names through retirement (ie Johnson, Robinson, Leanord, Woodman, Catt, Greenwood, Hill, Back).

IIRC, currently injured Steve Borthwick, Alex Brown, Jonny Wilkinson (been injured since 2003) and Josh Lewsey.
Lewsey came back strong after winter altitude training, he looked on fire, massive frame but much much faster. First game back and he's off with a hamstring after 30mins.

The autumn test matches should give a good guide, but if you saw what happened in the six nations, it wasn't good. England should be first or second in group A, but beyond that...???

I hope they do do better than that, 2003 was a great spectacle, if we only get a couple of moments like Robinsons try from inside his own 10mtr line, or the cross corner, or the greenwood charge down, or cohen charging down the nz back line, or of course, Wilko's drop goal. Oh yeah, and memorable big hits, namely from Lewsey, Moody, Johnson, Dallaglio and Hill.

Of course Wales are back fully fit this year and all the previously injured players are looking the business. Since we beat Oz with our second/third string last year if they are rated then surely we have to be in there somewhere.

Of course with GJ making some odd selections who knows where we will end up. Anyway I'm looking forward to beating Austrailia 4 times between now and the end of the RWC .

So who will come out at the biggest shocker (for relative success, not for winning out)? Fiji? Italy? Who will be the big Cinderalla story? Any team looking (10 months out) like they might be the spoiler?

Quite franky, if the US can score 3-digits over the course of the tourney, I'll consider it a successful RWC for us. Beyond that, I just want to beat Canada.

I'm not sure if a Cinderella story is likely. Generally small differences tend to become big scorelines in Rugby meaning you're either on pace or nowhere. Very difficult to bridge these gaps on the day unfortunately. Its why Ireland and Wales seemingly came from nowhere to improve in recent times, in reality the improvement was only 2% but that much is the difference between a wooden spoon (2003) and a grand slam (2005) in our case and took Ireland from a 40 point drubbing against England not that long ago to taking 3 consecutive victories over the RWC holders.

Rugby generally is a damned good sport, league or union. I have been to matches in in the home countries and in France and mixed with opposition supporters on both the terrace and in the bar and never once saw a fight except on the field For a thrilling spectacle sevens is unbeatable and shows all the running skills that are sometimes not available when full teams are clogging up the space.
I live in west Wales and enjoy watching the international matches in my local pub, and being a Scot is never a problem either

nordle wrote:Combined with some teams -2% Italy, improved loads over the last few years and SHOULD have beaten France this year. They deserved it! They outclassed the French.

But that was possibly the combination of Italy's improvement and France not have a great game.

I really want to see Ireland and Wales back on form, some of the famous Welsh quick ball And Scotland, the England game at Murryfield was great (even though we lost).

It was a joy to see these performances, even if they weren't by England for the most part. But thats what I love about the six nations and world cup, its just damn good sport!!

Italy have improved by a lot since they joined the 6N. They've proven the elitists that wanted to keep them out wrong entirely. It was always going to be the case that exposed to regular high class rugby they would improve. The improvements are not just at international level, their clubs have shown notable improvements (if still being off par slightly) at HEC level.

Anyway the internationals are starting now. Straight in against Austrailia for Wales, should be interesting.

Well that raises serious questions about the depth of Austrailian rugby for the RWC. For your second international string, a year out from the tournament, to lose to a region short of 17/18 players means it will be very difficult for Austrailia if they get a few injuries.

A great win for the Osprey's though. Perhaps now we will hear less about lost history in Welsh rugby and realise what we have now. Anyway the O's owners are happy, they just doubled their support base. Perhaps we'll hear less condescending nonsense from SKY as well but they'll probably claim that Austrailia have nothing on Sale anyway.